welcome to the u.s. senate. there is a lot to catch up on. first of all, many of your new colleagues, most of the people you're about to join, they won their elections back in november. you of course did not. so it is possible that between november and now, like a normal human being, you were not paying all that much attention 20 what washington has been up to. it's the end of the year. things have slowed down. we're waiting for a new congress to come in. usually you would have time to get your bearings to figure out where the bathrooms are. that is not going to be the case this year. not with the fiscal cliff. luckily for you, we here at "the rachel maddow show," we have been paying attention. we have had absolutely no other choice, unfortunately. and we are here to help you and everyone else trying to figure out how we got to this point we are in. right after that election, the day after the election, in fact, your new colleagues got to work immediately on the cliff. the day after the collection, republican house speaker john boehner put ou